This entry contains a bunch of tips that you can use to get on the front page of Sphinn.com. Everything from getting noticed, to the times to submit your article.
Quality content is still needed, but this will help your best work not get passed over by fast moving eyes, and a faster moving submission queue.
It has both basic, and more advanced concepts.16 Comments

Comments

A well written guide... although Im still amazed that people are actually writing how-to guides on how to get to the Sphinn frontpage. Digg or Newsvine I can understand but Sphinn is easy, at least from my perspective. You only need to do three things: 1. Submit articles daily2. Sphinn up the submissions of regular users and good stories. Do this daily.3. Comment whenever possible to share your opinions. And theres a lot of basic commonsense stuff about titles/avatar which Im not gonna go into. One important thing that some people [including you SlightlyShady :) ] dont practice is the art of submitting stories from other websites other their own. Yes, only submitting stuff from your own domain is fine according to the rules but when you want to build your profile from the ground up through Sphinn, its not a very effective way to do it.Its as if youre trying to say that only your own articles are good enough to be submitted/shared. SMMers submit stories from multiple sources on sites like Reddit or Digg to simulate a natural user account, gain influence and mask their marketed content. On Sphinn, it achieves similar aims... although I would see it more as a way to network and generate goodwill. I very seldom submit stuff from my own site, in fact I enjoy submitting other peoples articles (especially new bloggers) a lot more because I love giving them exposure... especially if theyve written a good article. Dont get me wrong, you are a new user and I think your stuff is interesting. But generally I like to see some variety in submission sources for most profiles out there.

Thanks for the words dosh :-)And yeah, I realize Im a bit of a hypocrite on the point of submitting from other blogs. Im working on it, believe me. But Im quite new to blogosphere, and am still gathering up a repetiore of sites to read that I enjoy, and would feel great about promoting. More will come soon.

Yeah, I agree with Maki. Submitting others can greatly increase your network. Daily users take notice to your efforst, plus it allows more exposure for your avatar/name.I enjoy your blog and I would happily sphinn most of your post if they were not taken already.

Sometimes stuff doesnt stick. It just happens.Something I noticed is yours is a shadier end of marketing. Sphinn doesnt seem to like shady things. Nothing Ive submitted ranks up if its in that genre.

This article brings up some interesting points, but I cant help but become bitter towards the social media marketing world after reading articles and comments like this. I sincerely feel like all the popular social media sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, Sphinn, you name it) have become tainted by strategic poison. Everything has become so tactical in nature. Perhaps this is just the nature of marketing and sales, but whatever happened to doing things for the right reason? For the good of others with a pure intent? To genuinely want to vote and comment on peoples articles without the intent to leverage their reputation, gain exposure or what not for self gain? The fact that there are requirements to succeed on social media sites is really disconcerting. All I can say is that its a fake fake world out there.

Fluid, I understand your objections in general, but I specifically tried to keep this as something that would not get game the site, but rather promote content that would otherwise be overlooked, and is quite good. Take a look sometime at the stuff that is WAY back in the upcoming section, ignoring the spam. A lot of it gets plugged at the wrong time, or has a crappy title/description, but is very good. Oftentimes, a better submitted version with essentially the same content sobmitted afterwards can front page. Thats not right, or good.

<div>I dont know man, Sphinn (and the community) turned out to be completely different than what I expected and Im definitely disappointed. It initially seemed like a site that genuinely encouraged the free dissemination of information and everyone was considered an equal. The guidelines even encourage people to submit their own articles which I thought was great. Now you have people - even moderators - telling you what you should and should not do. Meanwhile, these very "rules" that are being communicated (i.e. making it a daily habit to Sphinn regular users to get to the front page) are poisoning the system. Its essentially become a popularity contest where your "success" is attained through artificial means, not to mention that a vicious cycle is being created that threatens the credibility of the voting system and site as a whole.</div>

One thing you should note; the rules are not enforced. Theyre reccomendations. What the admins would like to see. Its possible to get ranked up breaking these "rules". Very possible. The popularity contest you mention though, is a reality. An unfortunate reality, but still true. For right now though, its possible for newbies to still break in, and I gues we should take advatnage of that while it still exists.

Yeah, I realize that the rules are only recommendations, but I cant help but be irked by the idea of employing a strategy to get to the front page, not to mention even getting Sphinns in the first place. Stories that get Sphunn should be done out of merit and honesty, not out of the intent to provide an artificial vote of confidence with the goal of enhancing your reputation. Now Im really wondering whether the (few) Sphinns I received on my submissions were really out of a vote of confidence or was it part of a promotion scheme for those that Sphunn it, in addition to the Sphinns that are cast on all the other articles on this site.It really boils down to an issue of sincerity and doing the right thing for the right reason.But anyways, on a positive note, I think many of the suggestions you made on your article are very helpful. I know you didnt mean to have any bad intentions. It was moreso about the underlying implications of your article and some of the comments that really bothered me.

I cant help but be irked by the idea of employing a strategy to get to the front page, not to mention even getting Sphinns in the first place. Stories that get Sphunn should be done out of merit and honesty, not out of the intent to provide an artificial vote of confidence with the goal of enhancing your reputation.There ARE stories that get sphunn out of merit and honesty. If you spend time often enough on the Whats New section, youll notice them. Sphinn is a great community and people do vote out of merit and honesty. If you dont want to employ a strategy... dont. Nobody is forcing you to anything you dont want to. You dont have to play any game, you can just go your own way.And I checked out the submissions from your site, they are sphinn-worthy.. so have a little faith in your content :)

Amen dosh :-)I still dont think of sphinn as a strategy or anything(as dosh pointed out, I dont follow some of my own suggestions), and hope my article didnt encourage others to think of it as such. Ill think things through more in the future though.

Its also probably worth noting that ANY community of people, anywhere, online or offline--eventually becomes stratified. Some members become more popular (and their contributions to discussion garner more weight) and other members who may well have something really valuable to say, for some reason are ignored. Ive seen people on message boards that have no commercial interest whatsoever develop cliques, adopt a pack mentality, and effectively push other members threads down for no other reason than spite. If youre looking for a completely altruistic and class-less society, good luck.

Dosh, I realize that nobody is forcing anyone to do anything, but when high-profile members like you (and even moderators) suggest to people about what should and should not be done, they naturally become de facto standards. Dont get me wrong - I think your strategies are definitely smart and make sense. But my main concern (and frustration) was that the genuine human component that I think many people are looking for on social media sites like Sphinn is being compromised. Or maybe I was wrong and its solely a marketing medium by which people leverage others for their own self gain. I hope the latter is not the case.KatFrench, I think that my concerns are legitimate so I dont know why you would imply that I have interest in colluding with others to "push other members threads down for no other reason than spite". I have absolutely nothing against Shady - in fact, I think many of his suggestions are great. It was mainly the underlying implications of his article and the comments that were written in response that provoked my initial response. And yes, you are right - any community will eventually become stratified. But I think the means in which people reach the "upper echelons" are important to consider as well.